Finally - two more races

After three days ashore, the SAP 505 Worlds resume

Wednesday March 30th 2011, Author: Di Pearson, Location: Australia

Finally, two more races sailed at the 2011 SAP 505 World Championship as the wind god of Hamilton Island played ball, offering up superb 15-20 knot winds, some great surfing waves and brilliant action that has bought a few competitors much closer to the leading Germans.

An excellent but by no means easy win for Mike Holt and Carl Smit (USA) in Race 3, and a double celebration for Californian Holt, who celebrated his 43rd birthday yesterday, but as he explained: “It’s today in California – so I’m taking that with our win.”

Race 4 winners, Sandy Higgins/Paul Marsh, along with American’s Howie Hamilin/Andy Zinn and Luke Molloy/Jim Turner (GBR) were the last three boats Holt and Smit had to wear down to cross the line in first, surfing big waves and overcoming shifty unstable winds along the way.

“It was a tough race,” admitted Smit who with Holt finished World’s runners-up in 2009. “Crews kept swapping places back and forth in the top eight or so. The pressure kept changing and we just tried to keep grinding the opposition down.

“Mike had to hike so hard going up the last beat where we got ahead of a couple of boats when we picked the right hand shift, then coming down the run we got the last of them and got away a bit,” Smit said.

“It (the pointscore) is so much closer now, because Ted (Conrads) and Brian (Haines) came second in the second race and Sandy Higgins won the second race, so it moves everyone up closer to Wolfgang (Hunger) and Julien (Kleiner), the German series leaders.

In fact, only three points separates the top three, with Hunger/Kleiner leading Holt/Smit by two points and Higgins Marsh by a further point. The Germans had an ordinary 15th in Race 4, which has been used as their drop, a far cry from the two bullets they scored on Day 1.

South Australians Sandy Higgins and Andrew Chisholm looked set to win Race 3, but as Chisholm explained, “we stuffed up the third beat, were trying to get leverage, but we went the wrong way and finished third.”

Not to be deterred, the two, whose World’s best was a third on home turf in Adelaide in 2007, led Race 4 from go to whoa.

“We handled the conditions nicely in that one. The breeze had dropped a little, but we did well to hang on in a decent swell and reasonably confused seas,” Chisholm said of the residual effects left from the past few days’ bad weather.

“We had a fairly good hold on the rest of the fleet, but it was close racing all the same,” he allowed.

Like Holt, Chisholm was pleased to be able to close the gap on Hunger and Kleiner. “It’ll be a much closer series now,” he said smiling.

Howie Hamlin/Andy Zinn, Molloy/Turner and Nathan Outteridge/Iain Jensen (AUS) did enough today to stay in touch with the leaders.

Provisional overall results after four races with one drop:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot	Net
1	Wolfgang Hunger	Julien Kleiner	GER	1	1	3	-15	20	5
2	Mike Holt	Carl Smit	USA	3	-6	1	3	13	7
3	Sandy Higgins	Paul Marsh	AUS	2	-7	5	1	15	8
4	Ted Conrads	Brian Haines	USA	7	2	-10	2	21	11
5	Howie Hamlin	Andy Zinn	USA	4	-10	6	4	24	14
6	Luke Molloy	Jim Turner	GBR	-14	11	2	5	32	18
7	Nathan Outteridge	Iain Jensen	AUS	-9	3	7	8	27	18
8	Jens Findel	Johannes Tellen	GER	5	5	16	-25	51	26
9	Ian Pinnell	Charles Dwyer	GBR	8	-13	8	10	39	26
10	Mike Martin	Geoff Ewenson	USA	-23	4	22	9	58	35
11	Bill Cuneo	John Warlow	AUS	12	17	-23	6	58	35
12	Terry Scutcher	Christian Diebitsch	GBR	24	-25	4	12	65	40
13	Shane Guanaria	Leigh Riddell	AUS	-25	8	19	14	66	41
14	Jan Saugmann	Morten Ramsbaek	DEN	(86.0 DNF)	9	17	16	128	42
15	Mike Quirk	Sam Heritage	AUS	6	12	26	-33	77	44
16	Mick Babbage	James McAllister	AUS	(86.0 DNF)	14	14	18	132	46
17	Claas Lehmann	Leon Oehme	GER	18	22	-24	7	71	47
18	Bruce Edwards	Mathias Kennerknecht	USA	-41	15	21	11	88	47
19	Robin Deussen	Jordan Spencer	AUS	11	18	18	(86.0 DNF)	133	47
20	Carter Jackson	Peter Holden	AUS	10	30	9	-46	95	49
21	Meike Schomaker	Holger Jess	GER	20	-45	13	17	95	50
22	Malcolm Higgins	Andrew Chisholm	AUS	26	19	12	-31	88	57
23	Brett Beyer	Darren Gilbert	AUS	15	-35	29	13	92	57
24	Ryan Cox	Stu Park	USA	-30	21	11	28	90	60
25	Stefan Koechlin	Thomas Jung	GER	19	26	-28	21	94	66
26	Kevin Cameron	John Mortensen	AUS	33	16	-37	22	108	71
27	Philip Cragg	Reto Corfu	CAN	16	28	27	-37	108	71
28	Nick Davis	Michael Duffield	AUS	21	23	-40	27	111	71
29	Hasso Plattner	Peter Alarie	GER	13	37	-51	23	124	73
30	Nigel Lott	Bob Franks	AUS	28	20	-49	26	123	74
31	Jeff Miller	Mike Smith	USA	31	-34	31	19	115	81
32	Daniel Keys	Darryl Roos	AUS	-38	29	20	34	121	83
33	Brett Sharpe	Anthony Gaunt	AUS	22	(86.0 DNF)	41	24	173	87
34	Peter Nicolas	Luke Payne	AUS	42	(86.0 DNF)	25	30	183	97
35	Paul Von Grey	Doug Hagan	USA	29	40	30	-58	157	99
36	Peter Chappell	Matt Smith	AUS	17	39	-47	44	147	100
37	Ayden Menzies	Lachlan Hornsby	AUS	27	-41	34	41	143	102
38	Helen Fischer	Lars Dehne	GER	32	-48	32	38	150	102
39	Michael Thomson	Marcus Cooper	AUS	-39	32	35	36	142	103
40	Ebbe Rosen	Olle Wenrup	SWE	55	(86.0 DNF)	15	35	191	105
41	Nicholas Deussen	Jonno Bannister	AUS	34	36	36	-43	149	106
42	Paul Mitchell	Sam Haines	AUS	43	31	33	-50	157	107
43	Earle Alexander	Ian Gregg	AUS	37	38	-43	32	150	107
44	Mark Thornburrow	Laurence Mead	HKG	-56	53	42	20	171	115
45	Jeff Robinson	Neville Kerr	AUS	48	24	46	-54	172	118
46	Ryan Menzies	Joel Castle	AUS	36	44	-54	42	176	122
47	Xavier Broise	Gilles Carvallo	FRA	40	43	-59	39	181	122
48	Rob Waterman	Aaron Ross	USA	45	-50	39	40	174	124
49	Carol Buchan	Carl Buchan	USA	44	33	(86.0 DNF)	53	216	130
50	Nicola Birkner	Angela Stenger	GER	51	-64	38	49	202	138
51	Claus Ejlertsen	Mick Patrick	AUS	-54	49	44	48	195	141
52	Nikolaj Buhl	Henrik Buhl	DEN	(86.0 DNF)	27	86.0 DNS	29	228	142
53	Roger Deane	Adam Kenney	GBR	35	57	52	-65	209	144
54	Hubert Guy	Xavier deTappe	USA	46	-56	53	45	200	144
55	Matt Hansen	Anthony Dean	AUS	50	-51	48	47	196	145
56	Clint Bowen	Anthony King	AUS	53	55	45	-62	215	153
57	Ed Cox	Cameron McDonald	AUS	57	47	50	-64	218	154
58	Stefan Schollmeyer	Frisco Sanguino	GER	52	54	-57	51	214	157
59	Nathan Rosenberg	Reeve Dunne	AUS	58	59	-62	52	231	169
60	Sam Cronin	Kevin Whitbread	AUS	61	-62	56	57	236	174
61	Richie Gallimore	Bryce Penfold	AUS	47	46	(86.0 DNC)	86.0 DNC	265	179
62	Steve McConaghy	Nick Johnstone	AUS	49	52	(86.0 DNC)	86.0 DNC	273	187
63	Bob Tennant	Rich Mundel	CAN	(86.0 DNF)	42	86.0 DNF	60	274	188
64	Antoine Lafortune	Geraud Lafortune	FRA	65	(86.0 DNF)	67	56	274	188
65	Tom Brewer	Lindsay Whitton	AUS	-70	61	66	61	258	188
66	Enno Wilts	Klaus Heeschen	GER	60	(86.0 DNF)	58	75	279	193
67	Sarah Withall	Robert Gilchrist	AUS	67	65	61	-79	272	193
68	John Paterson	Paul Greenwood	AUS	(86.0 DNF)	68	63	63	280	194
69	John McLean	Dennis Winstanley	AUS	59	71	65	-78	273	195
70	Gilbert Ford	James Ford	AUS	66	60	69	-71	266	195
71	Richard McCulloch	Glen Stewart	AUS	62	(86.0 DNF)	68	69	285	199
72	Herve Dekegariou	Bernadette Dekegariou	FRA	63	63	(86.0 DNC)	73	285	199
73	AJ Crane	David Parker	USA	68	66	(86.0 DNS)	67	287	201
74	Luke Rhodes	Andrew McCole	AUS	64	-72	70	68	274	202
75	Grahame Tindall	David Johnson	AUS	(86.0 DNF)	69	64	70	289	203
76	Peter Croft	Gary Rushton	AUS	72	58	(86.0 DNF)	74	290	204
77	Ian Taylor	Robin Bath	AUS	(86.0 DNF)	86.0 DNF	60	59	291	205
78	Brett Bowden	Bradley Greenrod	AUS	(86.0 DNF)	86.0 DNF	55	66	293	207
79	Tim Jeans	Tom Connell	AUS	73	67	(86.0 DNS)	76	302	216
80	Bruce Vandeventer	Scott Weiler	USA	74	70	(86.0 DNS)	77	307	221
81	Ian Burford	Dave Christie	AUS	(86.0 DNS)	86.0 DNF	86.0 DNS	55	313	227
82	Jonathon Ross	Ian Scholes	AUS	69	(86.0 DNF)	86.0 DNS	72	313	227
83	Patrick McGale	Chris Pearson	GBR	71	(86.0 DNF)	86.0 DNC	86.0 DNC	329	243
84	Christian Pittack	Annie Fitzpatrick	USA	75	(86.0 DNF)	86.0 DNC	86.0 DNC	333	247
85	Adrian Kiely	Darren Cooney	AUS	(86.0 DNS)	86.0 DNF	86.0 DNC	86.0 DNC	344	258